Where are the EVs? GWM Ora trails the MG4 and BYD Dolphin for electric car sales, but what are the Chinese brand's plans to tackle Tesla, Kia, Hyundai and more

While GWM has leapt ahead of a number of popular mainstream car brands in Australia, the Chinese giant is trailing a few competitors in one key area - electric cars.

GWM has just one battery electric vehicle on sale in Australia - the Ora small hatchback. Rivals like BYD offer four EVs, MG has three (and more on the way), and Hyundai and Kia have a range of EVs each.

Launching in 2023, the Ora has not enjoyed the same level of sales success as its two direct rivals that have been on sale for a similar amount of time.

In 2024, GWM shifted 1225 examples of the Ora, but that was behind the similarly sized BYD Dolphin (2116) and the popular MG4 hatch (6934).

The latter was the best-selling small passenger car over $40,000 in Australia last year.

Newly installed GWM Australia and New Zealand Chief Operating Officer John Kett was blunt in his summary of the Ora’s performance so far.

“Should we do better? Certainly. Are we happy with the progress? Yes. Have we got more Oras and other EV platforms in our plan going forward? Yes, definitely,” he told CarsGuide.

GWM Australia and New Zealand Head of Marketing and Communications Steve Maciver said volume expectations for the retro-styled EV were not huge, but admitted that its small hatch body style may have hindered its success.

“Ora has done a good job for us in terms of giving us an option in the EV space,” he said. “Ora was never going to be a huge volume player for us. We wanted to bring the technology to market, and again, to give our customers choice. Now, we settled on around about 120 units a month.

“We'd probably say had that technology been available, for example, for us in a small SUV, could we have done more volume? I think the short answer to that is yes. The fact that it's in the small hatch probably has hindered some of the opportunity. But again, if you look at where the segment opportunities lie, the fact that we've got the technology without seeing exactly where we're headed, if you read the tea leaves, you can see the opportunity that we know we do have with Ora.”

When asked why GWM has only one fully electric car on sale, Maciver suggested more were coming, while highlighting the brand’s focus on other green powertrain tech.

“There are further BEV or EV products in development. We're not in a position to share just yet, but we may be in a position later this year to start telling you about what that looks like. Ora still definitely has a place within our portfolio. As we said earlier, it's about giving customers choice. It's about democratizing technology.

“But we believe… it's about bringing in the right technology at the right time when we believe take up is going to be at its optimum. We think plug-in hybrid, hybrid is the battleground for the next couple of years. But EV technology is certainly coming, and that's in development.”

GWM has just launched its first plug-in hybrid, the Haval H6 GT and there are more planned. A plug-in version of the Cannon Alpha ute, the Tank 500 and H6 SUVs are also on the way. That’s on top of the hybrid powertrains already on offer in the Haval Jolion, H6, Tank 300 and 500 and Cannon ute.

Maciver also clarified where EVs would sit in GWM’s sizeable brand portfolio.

“Ora is our GWM’s EV brand, so the focus for that brand is still going to be dedicated EV. Now, ultimately, over time, electrification will probably potentially go into some of those other sub brands over time, but Ora remains our dedicated and focused EV brand, so Ora will be the focus of those cars.”

GWM Haval H6 GT PHEV

That could mean down the track that Haval, Tank and the Cannon ute sub-brands get their own EV models, but time will tell.